Meeting Minutes 07/06/08

 

Attendees: Bharath, Chandar, Gaurav, Ganesh, ArvindR, Venkatesh Iyengar, Savitha, Murali

 

I. Project Freedom-Recycling paper mill proposal- Chandar

(Project Page: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=591)

-   Project background regarding Irulas, bonded labor, work done by Siddamma and Bharathi trust in these areas

-   Two employment generation options: a) Brick Chamber and b) Recycling paper mill

   (Link to proposal)

-   Based on discussions with the local people during the site visit by Santhosh (Link to site visit report) and discussions between Siddamma and the local people, brick kiln would require considerable capital and effort; it is also very seasonal

-   Recycling paper mill is much easier to start on a smaller scale and grow further in the future.

-   Most of the people are now currently employed at day laborers (this is also mostly restricted to the men)

-   The recycling paper mill is intended to support up to 40 families as well as employing 40 women; work is not very physically demanding

-   The 40 women would take up ownership, management, accounting, etc. of the company.

-   Geetha, who is another social activist in the area has helped other groups set up such initiatives before. She will help these folks with the initial set-up and training.

-   Site visit video from Santhosh was shown.

-   Approximate time line to set-up and do training: 3 months

 

Questions:

  1. Does NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) cover this area?
  2. Do any micro-finance organizations work in this area?
  3. How are the 40 women going to be chosen (from among the 200 families that this project plans to address), both for working in the company as well as to be involved in the management tasks? Who among these specifically would be in charge of day-to-day management?
  4. How well are the other units that Geetha helped set-up in other areas doing right now?

-Where are they located?

-How long was it before they started generating revenues/became sustainable?

-What other issues did they face?

  1. What is the educational background of the women this initiative plans to address?
  2. Where is the land for setting up the plant coming from? If the ½ acre land is being provided by the government what is the cost associated with line item 1 on the budget?

 

II.    Unnati-Uday Patshala :Murali

(Project page: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=603)

-   Background and recent updates